News & Reviews:   Google

In conjunction with its 17th anniversary, YouTube today announced that it is refreshing things by rolling out a new look and feel on the platform. Moreover, the Google-owned company is also introducing new features to enhance the experience on the platform, including the ability to pinch to zoom on videos.

Previously, we reported that YouTube was testing out locking videos in 4K resolution only for Premium subscribers, which understandably caused a lot of backlash from the community. Now, YouTube confirmed that the test has ended, though it is still unclear whether the company would be implementing such a restriction in the future.

All YouTube users will soon be getting a new way of identifying themselves, which may be new to the platform, but not something entirely foreign in the social media landscape. Announced via a blog post today, YouTube is introducing @name handles across the platform.

Google has finally released the Google Pixel 7 series today which includes the flagship Google Pixel 7 Pro and the smaller Google Pixel 7. Powered by a new custom Tensor G2 processor with a Mali-G710 MC10 GPU, the Pixel 7 series features enhanced imaging capabilities, which the Pixel smartphones have always been known for.

Despite only being released today, the Google Pixel Watch has been in public knowledge for quite some time now thanks to Google itself purposely ‘leaking’ details of the wearable. Officially launched during an event earlier today, the Pixel Watch comes in a single size, which is a 41mm case with a domed, scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass 5 crystal.

Google has introduced something new to aid the healthcare field. Google Cloud Medical Imaging Suite is a tool that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) in diagnosing patients with various illnesses. The tech giant hopes this new tool will help to recognize a large proportion of sicknesses so that medical staff can shorten their time treating the patients.

Dynamic Island on the iPhone 14 Pro models has been all the buzz in the tech world lately, so much so that there is even an app that can emulate the feature on Android smartphones. In fact, the app, dynamicSpot, has been so popular that up to this day, it has already garnered over 1 million downloads on Google Play Store!

As more Widgets for the iOS 16 Lockscreen get introduced, Google is the latest player to launch not one, not two but three new ones. At the moment of this post, only the Google Drive widget is available whereas Gmail and Google News are coming soon too.

As many YouTube users continue to dodge YouTube Premium, Google seems to give them more reasons to do so. This is not confirmed yet, but some users have been experiencing a new test pilot that restricts 4K video resolution for YouTube Premium users only. 

While Google Stadia has never stepped foot in Malaysia, it's still quite shocking to hear the news from Google that the streaming gaming platform will be shutting down. Only after going live in 2019, the company decided to axe the project due to the lack of traction with users.